Court orders house arrest against Duque and Mincultura

The Superior Court of Magdalena ordered two days of house arrest or a fine of two minimum wages against President Iván Duque and the Minister of Culture, Angélica Mayolo.

(Duque’s response after the house arrest order for contempt).

The decision was made because both officials had presumably evaded compliance with a ruling issued by the Administrative Court of Magdalena that ordered them to issue the Decree through which the Master Plan for the Fifth Centenary of Santa Marta, in accordance with the provisions of Law 2058 of 2020.

“The Court considers that the entities involved were in contempt of the compliance ruling issued on June 1, 2021, confirmed by a ruling of June 24 issued by the Council of State, to the extent that to date it has not been issued. the decree through which the nation is associated with the celebration of the Fifth Centenary of the Foundation of Santa Marta, Magdalena and other provisions are dictated “marks the decision.

“For us it is important to mention that the National Government has been complying with said sentence, in the understanding that the technical tables have been developed with the District, receiving the different projects to be able to comply with the sentence. To date, there are 25 projects received; technical and budgetary details are still missing, as well as the possibility of receiving more projects to be implemented by virtue of the ruling,” explained the director of Dapre, Víctor Muñoz.

And I add: “However, there are several aspects to mention: the first of them is that said contempt sentence is not final. The second, as the Legal Secretary of the Presidency will say, the presidential jurisdiction, in this case, because we will also have the case before the Judicial Discipline Commission, as has been handled in previous instances, when the jurisdiction itself has not been respected, as established by the Constitution”.

For his part, the Legal Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, Germán Quintero, stated: “regardless of all the issues, procedural aspects that have been discussed, it is clear that the Administrative Court of Magdalena does not have the competence to impose this sanction, which, in this case, was a fine of two minimum wages to the President of the Republic, reason why I reiterate what the director has said, and that is: we will defend the constitutional jurisdiction of the president in all jurisdictional and disciplinary instances that may arise”.

Likewise, the Minister of Culture, Angélica Mayolo, pointed out: “Faced with the decision of the Administrative Court of Magdalena, for the alleged contempt in carrying out the actions and projects assigned as part of the Fifth Centenary of #SantaMarta, we will appeal said ruling, from the Ministry of Culture we have complied and will provide the evidence”.

POLITICAL DRAFTING